The FDA has granted orphan drug status to Gilead Sciences' experimental drug remdesivir as a potential treatment for COVID-19, as reported in the Financial Post.

The moves comes shortly after US President Donald Trump called on the FDA to streamline its approval process for treatments such as remdesivir, which is currently being tested in clinical trials, with results expected as early as next month.

Meanwhile, Gilead said it was temporarily putting new emergency access to remdesivir on hold due to a surge in compassionate-use requests for the drug to treat the novel coronavirus infection.